Dear All

For those who missed attending the Network FP Annual Conference 2011 held in Mumbai on October 19, 2011, kindly find below the text of welcome address.

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Good Morning Friends!

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all the 140 participants to Network FP Annual Conference 2011!

I would like to specially welcome our 55 outstation participants who have come all the way to Mumbai to attend this conference. I welcome our eminent speakers of today who have worked hard to present and share knowledge with us. Next the CFP fraternity, there are 70 CFP Certificants here with us who having accomplished an education program which is regarded as the gold standard in our profession. Welcome!

We have a healthy mix of participants present today and I hope you all have a great day interacting with each other.

We started working on Network FP in January 2011. So we are just around 9 months old. But in this period we have been able to give it a decent shape and vision. We now have a feeling of being born as a venture and ready to take on challenges ahead of us.

The last nine months have been truly amazing and we have done things beyond our wildest imaginations. In this short period, NetworkFP.com has 1,600 members online! We have conducted more than 10 workshops, organized a study tour for Indian Delegation to FPA Annual Conference held in San Diego US, launched Network FP Annual Conference 2011. And finally to end the year, we have lined up All India Tour covering 8 cities in the month of November & December.

All this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of many of you sitting here in this hall today. And I have very good reasons to give credit to you for this progress. Let me elaborate.

Today is really a big day for Priti and me. I want to tell you our story which we would like to share. One year back, in September 2010 we both left our respective jobs. Comfortable jobs getting monthly paychecks. Happily enjoying our Saturdays and Sundays. People called us nuts for giving it all up.

For 3 months we traveled backpacking across the country. Right from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, without worrying what we were going to do in life. Now people called us insane! How can somebody leave their job and go on a vacation?

This was something which we always wanted to do without thinking about future. We lived the most memorable moments of our lives. And we thought we will never have such a great time again. But we were to be proved wrong.

After return and debates & discussions for a month, we started working on networkfp.com, an idea and a website which I had conceptualized two and half years back. It was only an idea without any business model. The idea was to create an online platform to facilitate sharing of knowledge among financial planners. Simple.

While we didn’t know how we were going to earn, we were sure it would help in the growth of financial planning profession in India. This was a strong enough reason for us to take a plunge. Our gut feeling was money will follow value!

We started working from our 225 square feet rented home in Mumbai. 2 laptops & 2 mobile phones. And invested a few thousand rupees in creating a website.

But the most important assets we had were the friends we had made in this profession. We said to ourselves, let’s meet them and seek their guidance.

With just a website domain and an idea of bringing like minded people together, we went meeting 50 financial planners in Mumbai face-to-face and registering them on networkfp.com. Many of them are sitting in this hall today. I would like to thank you all for that one hour of precious time. Those meetings shaped up Network FP.

But many actually didn’t understand what we were trying to do and how we would make a living out of this idea. And they expressed their genuine concern for us. But no complaints, even we didn’t know. This was the time when we started 9 months ago.

Now every day we receive a couple of calls/mails appreciating our initiative… I feel humbled and uncomfortable with these calls. Because the truth is we haven’t done anything great. We still don’t have a business model in place. And we still work from our small home cum office.

All that we did and continue to do is bring people together and help them share knowledge, experiences and inspire each other. Simple as it may seem, I think it’s a very powerful approach to evolution and growth of financial planning profession.

It is people like many of our speakers today who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with all of us that we can look forward to this profession.

Financial Planning is one of the most satisfying professions in this world. It’s so rewarding when clients tells us how we make a difference to their lives and help them achieve their goals.

Friends, it’s only a financial planner who asks an individual “what are your goals in life?”, “what are your concerns?”, “what are your dreams for your children?” Not even a friend or a relative asks them in today’s times. You can imagine the depth in a client-planner relationship.

However it’s not an easy profession to be in. We have challenges and more challenges before we receive the recognition we deserve. There are 3 major obstacles we face today.

1. Regulatory environment which doesn’t recognize financial planning and financial planners

2. Consumer mindset of not willing to pay the fees for advice

3. Our own readiness both individually and as a community to overcome the above two

A person aspiring to become a financial planner today has many obstacles to cross… and it begins by making people understand what is financial planning… The reality is we are still at a nascent stage.

These are the times which will test the toughness of pioneers. And I strongly feel we can overcome these obstacles by helping each other and creating a healthy competition amongst ourselves. And more than helping, we need to inspire each other with our personal success stories.

I have always believed in the power of sharing. And we wanted to start our first annual conference with this theme. This year, the objective of the conference would be met if your belief in being united is fortified and sharing knowledge is strengthened.

Network FP Annual Conference is an initiative to support this thought process and bring the community together. I think everything else like knowledge, best practices, tools, softwares etc will follow. Today I personally want to drive a point – united we all stand, the greater are the chances of this novel profession to flourish.  So friends, for once say it to yourself from the bottom of your heart “Together, let’s make it happen”.

I hope you all have a great day ahead and make it memorable for yourself and others.

Thank you all once again for being with us today!

Thank you!

 

Authored by,

Sadique Neelgund

Founder

Network FP Knowledge Solutions Pvt ltd

Mumbai

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